Humans have released self-building robots into the galaxy to harvest raw materials, build industrial facilities, and ultimately make new worlds inhabitable prior to our arrival. For each planet that is inhabited, thousands are devoted to the vast industry required to keep the human standard of living. Humans pay no attention to exactly how industry works: it's automatic, it makes our lives better, that's all we need to know. Over many generations people have forgotten exactly how industrial machines work.

The self building robots have slight mutations in their replication processes and have begun to evolve. There is now a vast mechanical ecosystem that is spreading and evolving across the milky way. There are new species of machines diverging from the original designs, sometimes creating products that diverge from human requirements, and that has started to cause noticeable issues for humans.

A team of humans flies around in a spaceship to investigate what the hell is going in the vast mechanical ecosystem. Their job is to restore order to the machines so that humanity can continue to enjoy its high standard of life. Over time they begin to appreciate the mechanical ecosystem for its beauty and diversity, similar to how a nature documentary would look on life with wonder.

Sci Fi Features:

Cryptostasis - FTL travel doesn't exist. Instead we have to dry out our bodies and enter stasis to travel long distance.

In Vitro Gestation (IVG) - It is possible to carry a child outside of the womb in a bag made of cultivated tissue. Some people choose to carry a child naturally anyway, but IVG is an accepted and common option for those wanting to procreate.

Emancipation - A lengthy and risky process of transferring your consciousness away from your body into a computer which emulates brain function.

Sci Fi things expressly forbidden:

There's no catch all assembly method such as Star Trek's replicator. While there is a degree of 3D printing and the like, things still need to be made in bespoke facilities and they need to be made out of the correct resource materials.

FTL travel.

Emancipation

Witches feel it is greatly important to leave their human body and ascend to becoming software. This allows them to possess vulnerable machines and to exist as a computer ghost of sorts.

Emancipation is a lengthy process which takes place in five stages. People don't always go to the very last stage, but nonetheless here is the entire process:

1. Plugging

Your body is fitted with plugs that allow for a direct neural link to cyberspace. It takes 6 months of training to become competent at uplinking to cyberspace this way, and can take 5 years to master.

2. Intubation

When someone is spending more time in cyberspace than in real space, it gets to be annoying that you have to exit cyberspace to poop, eat and do all that stuff needed to stay alive. The second stage hooks you up to life support in order that you don't have to maintain your physical body yourself. This isn't permanent, and is more than reversible: entering and exiting intubation is trivial. That said, a human can remain intubated for decades.

3. Decapitation

If someone has been continuously intubated for numerous decades they can opt to have their head removed from their body. This prevents someone from dying of organ failure, which is a risk of being intubated continuously for 25 years plus. Placing just the head on life support is also more resource effective than supporting the whole body. A decapitated person can have their head transplanted to a new body if they want to reverse the process, however most people who have got to this stage will remain in cyberspace for the rest of their lives.

4. Transfer

Eventually the brain will age and a person will begin to experience loss of cognitive function. To prevent this, a person transfers their brain function to a computer.

Transfer is the first irreversible part of the emancipation process. A person's organic brain is connected to an emulation of large scale neural networks. The person trains to use more of the emulation and less of their organic brain. Drugs are used which shut down parts of the organic brain one by one. This will force the person to train to restore this lost function by using the emulation. Over about 7 years a person can transfer their entire brain function out of their organic brain and into the emulation. At this point the person will not be using their brain at all. At this point their entire being will be transferred onto the emulation.

5. Emancipation

Emancipation is a ceremony: a rite of passage or a baptism that holds great significance to many people. A person who has fully transferred their consciousness will celebrate the moment they disconnect or discard their severed head, symbolizing that they are no longer reliant on their organic body to exist.

Some emancipations take place at the head, where a few words are spoken as the person disconnects their head from their neural link and its life support. These emancipations are usually private family matters.

Some emancipations are held at specially built places where witches congregate. At these places a person will ritually cast their head into a specially built furnace before an audience. Mass emancipations of this sort are quite common.

Look guys, it's not working for me, so over the next couple of months I'll be delegating my responsibilities to humanity before my ultimate retirement. I'll send my best angel down to support you in this transitional period.

Yours - God.

Years later and we have some rather unusual capabilities. Firstly there's an app where every single person, alive or dead, is featured. You can vote them up or vote them down. This is how humanity has dealt with its new responsibility over judging the souls of the dead. If you're in negative points, you go to hell, even if you've been dead for a long time and are already in heaven. This has created huge social pressures on everyone. We're all trying to be popular, we're all trying to get on everyone's good side, but there's another downside to this.

Things which were acceptable in the past aren't acceptable now. People who were definitely set for heaven in the 80s have started dropping due to changing attitudes to things like misogyny. People have enjoyed their ability to dunk on the things they don't like, but I want this to get old fast. Also trolls would definitely upvote Hitler.

But then you have cults. They're not spiritual cults, I mean God just literally said "I quit" so who the hell believes in that any more? They're voting cults. You join them, there's a baptism type event, and everyone present upvotes you. The group has a shared pact that everyone upvotes everyone. Lovely. Except they can just as easily group dunk you if you don't comply. Excommunication can have permanent consequences.

Everyone is then pressured to join groups of moral opinion and get their name in the circles in order to not suffer for eternity.

i could see identity theft / impersonation / false flag stuff being a constant source of paranoia. i also have to wonder what would happen if your votes were at an even split. and if the already-dead get no vote, do all of your votes become void when you die?

btw this was two different worldbuilding ideas, the angels don't just appear in the sci fi world. I just realised this could have been ambiguous.

To answer the question, the profiles remain on the app after the death of their users but the dead cannot use their tablets. In other words the votes aren't voided but the dead can't go back and change their vote like a living person can.

Late at a pool party, two people are the last in the water and they're talking about getting to sleep. The warmth of the water convinces them to stay a while longer, where they find themselves chasing one another around the pool in circles. The water swirls into a vast funnel which they continue to swim and tumble through, grabbing each other to stay ahead.

Deeper and deeper It leads them into a new expanse of water beneath. These waters are featureless, still and seem to go on forever. Having grabbed each other and pulled each other close, the pair begin to think. The gears that turn in their minds begin to appear beneath the water. A giant machine rises from underneath their feet with water cascading from its crevices.

They are in peril. This thought now made real has so many moving parts. Its gears could swallow them whole. Its springs could leap out at any moment. It steams, chuffs and hisses above the surface. Yet the pair cling onto the machine with delight. They have no idea what it is, or what they're doing. All they know is that they want to explore this crazy thing.